A Writer's Guide to Boulder

The Main Library straddles Boulder Creek, and the Bookmark Cafe inside is open daily. Reserve a meeting or study room online. The library also runs One Book One Boulder, the city's community reading program.

The Carnegie Library is Boulder Public Library's local-history branch, home to the Maria Rogers Oral History Program and a digital archive of local history. Walk-in hours are limited. Book research and scanning time through the library calendar or by email.

The NoBo branch has its own makerspace and free parking. It is open daily.

Norlin is CU Boulder's main library, with study space set aside for graduate students and faculty. There is a Mindfulness Room on the first floor.

The reading room opens to the public by appointment, Monday through Thursday, and you book through Aeon. First-time visitors fill out a short registration. Only pencils, paper, laptops and phones are allowed at the table. The holdings include a leaf from a Gutenberg Bible and a handwritten letter by Emily Dickinson.

Naropa's library keeps volumes of Bombay Gin, the Jack Kerouac School's literary journal, in its permanent reserve. Its Small Press and Chapbook Collection of more than 1,000 items and its full Burning Deck Press catalog are seen by appointment. The library buildings require ID to enter, so outside researchers should email the library about access. The JKS Digital Audio Collection of readings and lectures is online.

Boulder Book Store calls itself Colorado's largest independent bookstore, and it fills three floors with new and used titles. It holds more than 200 events a year. Author talks fill the upstairs Ballroom most nights.

Trident is an independent, employee-owned bookstore and café that sells new and used books. Its events include the Trident Author Series and Jazzetry poetry nights. Open mics and a women's writing circle meet here too.

The Romance Section carries every subgenre of romance. Owner Hannah Morgan features Colorado authors and stocks self-published books next to traditionally published ones. The shop hosts events and book clubs.

Trident's café tables sit among the bookshelves, and there is a back patio. Coffee and tea are served from early morning into the evening every day.

OZO roasts its own coffee. The West Pearl café is open daily, a block from Boulder Book Store and Trident, and OZO has more Boulder cafés at 1521 Pearl St and 5340 Arapahoe Ave.

Alpine Modern's University Hill café is open daily and serves food all day. A second café is at 1695 29th St.

Norlin Commons has reservable group study rooms and a coffee shop. Writing help is available there too. After the library's regular hours, entry requires a Buff OneCard.

The teahouse's decor was crafted and painted in Tajikistan, from the hand-carved ceiling to the twelve carved columns. A fountain shows the Seven Beauties of a traditional folk tale. Tajik artists return to touch up the work. Afternoon tea and dinner are served daily.

Robert Frost is among the Boulderado's past guests. The hotel's restaurant, Spruce Farm & Fish, fills its original dining room, and License No. 1 is a cocktail lounge in the basement.

The Dining Hall serves breakfast through dinner, and its wraparound porch looks up at the Flatirons. On the same Colorado Chautauqua grounds, the Community House hosts concerts and lectures.

Allen Ginsberg and Anne Waldman founded the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa. Its three-week Summer Writing Program is open to any interested participant. Each session is built around a theme, with workshops led by guest and resident faculty alongside readings and panels. Writers work in poetry, fiction, experimental theater or mixed forms. Scholarships are offered.

Magic Mountain Talks is a free monthly series on literature and politics. A guest author talks with a conversation partner, then takes audience questions and signs books. CU Boulder's Center for Humanities & the Arts co-presents the series at Trident.

The Boulder Writers Alliance is a nonprofit for creative and professional writers. Its Creative Writer's Critique Group meets twice a month at the Boulder Public Library and takes fiction, nonfiction, poetry, screenplays and memoir. Writers Who Read meets monthly at the Main Library to study recent novels for craft. Members can list themselves in the Find A Writer directory.

At Stories on Stage, actors give dramatic readings of short fiction. Its subscription season has shows in Boulder and Denver.

The CHA Faculty Fellowship gives CU Boulder humanities and arts professors a one-semester teaching reduction and a cohort of colleagues. Faculty and staff can apply to the center's Small Grant Program for research and creative work. Scholars working in Great Britain can stay at the Hazel Barnes Flat in London.

The Open Monograph Fund pays university presses to publish CU Boulder faculty monographs open access. A separate Open Access Fund covers article processing charges. The Libraries host journals run by CU Boulder affiliates, with peer-review software and DOIs, and finished work can go into CU Scholar, the campus repository.

Colorado Humanities is the state humanities council. Its Colorado Center for the Book presents the Colorado Book Awards and runs the Colorado Poet Laureate program.

Lynne Rienner is an independent scholarly publisher. Its books cover international relations and US politics, with regional lists on Africa, the Middle East, China, and Russia and the post-Soviet region. It also publishes on peace operations and international law.

Shambhala publishes books and online courses on Buddhism and other spiritual paths. Poetry and crafts are on its list as well.

Proceedings of the IEEE is IEEE's monthly journal of in-depth review and tutorial articles across electrical and computer engineering and computer science. Its editor-in-chief, Zoya Popović, holds the Lockheed Martin Endowed Chair in Electrical Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder. Preparing an article for Proceedings of the IEEE

Colorado Humanities' Colorado Center for the Book runs the Colorado Book Awards. They honor Colorado authors and editors, along with illustrators and photographers.

The city appoints a Boulder-resident poet with an active practice and experience leading community poetry programs. The laureate gives free readings and workshops and receives an honorarium, and may also serve as Boulder Public Library Writer in Residence. The mayor makes the appointment after public nominations and interviews.

Writers and poets are among the individual artists these city grants fund. Boulder Vision project grants pay for individual projects, and the Professional Development Fund covers conferences and workshops.

Boulder County Arts Alliance administers the Neodata Endowment for the Arts, whose grants support projects and equipment purchases in every discipline, literature and book arts included. Writers without nonprofit status can use BCAA as a fiscal sponsor.

The Center for Literary Publishing at Colorado State University, publisher of Colorado Review, awards this prize to a poetry book manuscript. The Center publishes the winning book, and the University Press of Colorado distributes it. Entrants can live anywhere.

Our sister site's guide for University of Colorado Boulder students gathers grants and writing resources in one place.

Mines students will find grants and writing resources collected on this Editors For Students page.

Book Arts League teaches hand bookbinding and letterpress, with typography and calligraphy as well. Anyone can use its platen press and wood type by taking a class or renting studio time. Once a month the shop opens for you to print your own work.

Two Hands is a paper shop with handmade and decorative papers, from Lokta to marbled sheets. It also sells journals and writing tools, and it teaches classes in the store and online.

Allegra prints booklets in short and large runs, with saddle-stitch or coil binding. Collating, cutting, folding and laminating are handled under one roof.